The Wells Fargo racist sub-prime mortgage lawsuit reminded me of an old post we did where an ex-Countrywide employee alleged that that loan company had racist practices too. Here's the insider email we posted back in February, 08:
I confess. I did a bad thing. I worked for Countrywide Home Loans for about 2 years, shortly before the "mortgage meltdown." Countrywide is guilty of all charges and then some!
I can tell of several of instances where a customer would be qualified for a loan because their credit score and other factors based on the written product description, however, when I went in to put their (this only happened to African-Americans) ñ they were not qualified for the loan product and had to be referred to Countrywide's subprime mortgage company Full Spectrum. Full Spectrum offered higher rates and fees. I got wise day and started not imputing the race so the computer could give me "approval."
Most of my troubles with Countrywide began when I was told I needed put customers in more exotic products such as the "No Income-No Ratio (NINA)," "Stated Income-Stated Assets (SISA)," any ARM product or the classic "Pay Option ARM" (where you have a choice of 4 payments).
Countrywide offered incentives for putting customers in those types of products. My customers needed stability on their loan and didn't need to refinance every two to three years stripping them of their equity (provided they had any). I didn't agree with their policies so my tenure was short-lived.
I tried several times to contact the confessor but they never responded to my requests for an interview so we could get more details. Perhaps Baltimore and the NAACP should also be looking into Countrywide's lending practices.
In other news, if you're a minority and you want your loan approved, don't fill out your race on the app.
PREVIOUSLY: Countrywide Made Racist Sub-Prime Loans?
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